Driving anywhere with my kids is an exercise in madness.
See, we own a huge pick-up truck (since we have an apple orchard and need a massive rig to haul our fruit to the packing house each fall) and all three kids are packed into the same row of the cab. Three girls, duking it out.
The eldest sits in the middle and it’s impossible to buckle her into her booster seat without contorting my body and twisting and grunting, while the kid (who I am leaned over so I can reach the middle) on the ends punches me in the boob and laughs. Thankfully my eldest is a good little helper when it comes to her baby sister and will happily hold a bottle for her as we drive. That’s about the only good thing about our vehicular situation.
See, the two year-old? She is CRAZY.If the option to pull her big sister’s hair, or beat on her, or bug her, or pinch her is there, she just goes for it. The temptation is too great for her to resist, and being a nuisance is but an arm’s reach away. So, they basically fight and cry the entire time we drive anywhere.
I have tried everything: peppy kids’ music (KILL ME) to distract them, pulling over and spanking the two year-old when she hurts her big sister (but removing a kid from her car seat on the side of the road, beating her bottom, then buckling her back in only to have to repeat those same actions every 3.4 seconds is rather time consuming), shameless bribery (“I’ll give you a sucker if you can justbequietpleasefortheloveofpete“) and really angry yelling of empty threats (“If you don’t stop fighting I’ma gonna rip off your arms and beat you down with the wet ends!!”).
Oh, I would do just about anything for a third row of seating so that I could separate the two older girls. Mind you, there always is the bed of the pick-up. Perhaps I could harness her car seat there and make her travel like a hound, wind blowing her hair, as she barked at passing vehicles.
Are your kids good travelers? Do you have a vehicle you’re happy with or one that adds to the mayhem?
These kinds of stories make me feel better about not driving, all of a sudden…
d.v.d. Nuff said.
I had a huge library of books on CD s and I swear the worked. The magic flute, beethoven lives upstairs, shakespeare for kids, anne of green gables – ok don’t hate me – it is true. they loved it and it worked – mostly. My little one went berserk frequently over anything during her terrible twos, threes and fours but this was effective. Also bag of tricks- toys only enjoyed in car! Very good.
funny you should write about your kids in your van because I just wrote about me in mine- but flash forward to teenage daughters
http://myfamilyisnotbroken.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/the-trap/
We have a mini van with bucket seats in the middle row (kids #2 & 3) and a 60/40 split rear bench for kid #1 and his various hockey buddies we cart around. Nobody can touch each other without a lot of effort. Funny that as long as radio disney is on, the van is the most peaceful place that all 3 are ever together.
We have a built in DVD player in both the 2nd and 3rd rows that can each play a different DVD. Perhaps get a portable player that you can attach to the back of the front seat. It could also be utilized as another form of bribery (buying/renting a new DVD) or punishment (taking it away).
That picture…I feel it’s me 40% of my day!!! God I feel for you. I have one in the car and he alone drives me insane. BUT he used to yell constantly … so I keep thinking that everything is easier now. and I caved adn got a portable dvd….only for long trips so far…
What would happen if you moved the baby to the middle or is that possible? Would the two year old torment the baby like she does her big sister?
my boys are great travelers for the most part (CRAP i think i just jinxed myself)
it does help that they can’t reach each other AND that they have a DVD player built in. but before all those luxuries were available they still did ok.
honey, i’ll pray for you